#70s television

[autismsupersoldier]

biblically accurate columbo

(alt text in image ID)

[todayontumblr]

Wednesday 29 March.

Welcome Home.

It's good to be home... or is it? Because that, friends, would seem to be the central premise of the latest fascinating ARG from the bright, dark mind over at @partycoffin. And that is because their latest brilliantly disconcerting creation #welcome home is unraveling in more ways than one, and the good folk of the dashboard simply can't get enough of its intrigue, character designs, and aesthetic. What would appear to be a charming, Muppets-style vintage kid's television program would appear to be hiding some altogether darker secrets in an unsettling, colorful mystery that is left to you to piece together.

Whatever it's about, it's a certain fact that you good folk have quickly amassed a fandom community dedicated to the mysteries at the heart of #welcome home; full of fanart, theories, and gifs. We can't wait to see how it all plays out.

[retropopcult]

[vintage-tigre]

[astralbondpro]

Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus // Episode Two: William Tell

[misterwhirly]

Lynda Carter

[stone-cold-groove]

Angels in chains.

[eemcintyre]

The Hardy Boys / Nancy Drew Mysteries (1977-78)

[hellyeahgeorgekennedy]

George Kennedy on the set of The Blue Knight (1976)

[jessicatates]

x

[arconinternet]

The Letter People (Videos, 1974-1976)

You can watch it all here. A documentary about the show is soon to be released.

(Tip: each item is a different upload of the whole thing; the third has one of the videos out of order below the rest, and the fourth is missing the first twenty episodes.)

Mister X always gets things all wrong, as you can see - and under him, those are Card People, not Letter People. Mister X's pictured design is his original 60's design, also pictured here (and also, here, which also has all the main songs - including the untelevised Q, R and X songs). As for the Card People, I'll get to their Letter People connection in a couple of days...

[todayontumblr]

Wednesday, July 12.

1970s.

Ah, those were the days...

...not that we were there, of course. But we can sure as sugar pretend: listen to dusty vinyl records, grow our hair in all manner of styles, write on typewriters, watch films from the innovative "New Hollywood" directors such as Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Barbara Kopple, and Francis Ford Coppola if we're feeling artistic, neigh, intellectual (or sit down with Star Wars, Jaws, Rocky, and Saturday Night Fever if we're not), go to a lot of protests, recall our most grisly, harrowing memories from 'Nam, wear high-waisted trousers, and try to sneak into Fleetwood Mac's ever destructive, irresistibly sexy inter-band drama. 

In short, there was a lot happening in the 1970s, or indeed, the #70s, all of it big, bold, colorful, yet earthy, and very often brilliant. It was a decade of immense cultural, political, and societal change, much of it for the better, and much of it that, at the very least, continues in spirit to our own day. The 70s is not such a period of time, indeed, but a state of mind. 

[leche-flandom]

I think it's interesting that they made Columbo so nice, especially in comparison to the hardboiled detectives in other cop shows. Like when he tells Johnny Cash, "A guy who sings like you can't be all bad" and it's like, Frank, sir. He jumped out of a plane to commit double homicide. He BOGOed murder, Lt. Columbo.

[squirrelfm]

[astralbondpro]

Monty Python's Flying Circus // S03E02: Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular

[tgsclassics]

Character actress of the 60s and 70s, the beautiful Ruta Lee. She appeared in a long string of television episodes, but I'll always remember her foremost in the Andy Griffith Show episode "Andy On Trial". Hey Andy! It's that college kid!